Donny Askin, senior vice president and general manager of Gerber’s Yunique Solutions business unit, said, “The allure of ideation and the reason folks return year after year is because they benefit from the real-life experiences of their peers in other companies. They learn how to capitalize on our software to improve processes, lower costs and generally produce a better product more efficiently.”

Elaine Clarke, vice president of Sourcing, Quality Assurance & Compliance for J.Jill, said, “ideation is a powerful forum to learn, share ideas and best practices as we begin our journey with YuniquePLM.” J.Jill is a multichannel retail of women’s apparel, accessories and footwear. Company executives attended ideation for the first time last October, made the decision to implement YuniquePLM in January, and went live this past September – less than one year from discovery to go live. During this year’s conference, members of J.Jill’s implementation team presented best practices on cultivating PLM adoption through strong team building.

Beth Whittemore, technical designer for L.L.Bean, an American mail-order, online, and retail company, said, “Great minds from academia, the apparel business and software developers. There was plenty of time to network and gain knowledge from other users of all backgrounds. There was also time to give feedback to Gerber about future improvements from a user perspective and suggestions were encouraged.”

Additional case studies were presented by Aeropostale, Bassett Furniture, VF Jeanswear, Under Armour and Life is good!, among others. Each discussed ways their companies bridge the product design and development processes using Gerber’s YuniquePLM™ and AccuMark® software systems.

Attendees of the YuniquePLM sessions witnessed the latest in the software’s integration with Adobe® Illustrator®, the future of mobility, sourcing, collaboration, line creation and management. Participants of CAD-related sessions had a sneak peek into the next release of AccuMark, tips on cut planning, improving fit, costing, data conversion and more. For an overview of all sessions, visit gerbertechnology.com/ideation.

Laura McCann Ramsey, associate partner of The Parker Avery Group, a strategy and management consulting firm to leading retail, apparel and consumer packaged goods companies, said, “Comprehensive, educational, informative and inspirational. Ideation was that and more.”

About Gerber Technology
For more than four decades, Gerber Technology has been the world leader in providing sophisticated hardware and software systems to automate and more effectively manage the product design and manufacturing process. The company serves 25,000 customers, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies, in the aerospace, apparel, retail, composites, packaging, furniture, technical textiles and transportation interiors industries in 130 countries. Gerber’s products help users move faster, at less cost and with the highest quality.

Based in Connecticut, USA, Gerber Technology is owned by Vector Capital, a San Francisco-based, global private equity firm specializing in the technology sector that manages more than $2 billion of equity capital. Visit http://www.gerbertechnology.com for more information.

About Yunique Solutions
Yunique Solutions is the product lifecycle management business unit of Gerber Technology. YuniquePLM and webPDM software enables organizations to connect their creative teams with their supply chain to get the right products to market, on time and at the right cost. These systems can help businesses of all sizes accelerate time to market, reduce lead time and improve margins by managing the details of line plans, tech packs and samples and simplifying communication and collaboration with global partners. Visit http://www.yunique.com for details.